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Garbage. It’s everywhere — even in the middle of the oceans — and it’s pure gold for companies like Waste Management and Republic Services who dominate this $52 billion-a-year industry. From curbside collection by trucks costing $250,000 each, to per-ton tipping fees at landfills, there’s money to be made at every point as more than half of the 250 million tons of trash created in the United States each year reaches its final resting place. Read more

Trash bag makers are hoping shoppers will follow their noses to their latest products.

Glad Products Co. is gradually increasing its selection of bags that feature technology which promises to block odors, after introducing a line of bags called Odorshield with Febreze, the household odor eliminator, last year. Read more

You may be paying attention to how much trash you throw away, the amount of trash you recycle, and the amount of trash you can eliminate by using reusable containers. But have you ever given much thought to what it’s carried in—the lowly kitchen trash bag? Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags ever year, some of which are empty, and many of which are filled with all that trash we toss into landfills. Read more

You’re standing on a Los Angeles street, turning in a circle, looking for a public trash can to toss your empty coffee cup. Keep hunting, because the city maintains only about 1,000 cans on its city streets.

Mayor Eric Garcetti wants to add 5,000 more bins to the city inventory over the next four years, he said in his State of the City speech Tuesday. Read more

MILLIONS OF BUSINESSES are paying billions of dollars in rent on their garbage. They don’t think of it that way, of course, just as the fees they pay trash haulers to pick up their junk. But a significant portion of that money covers the cost of the landfill space itself. And what is a landfill if not a stinky, seething plot of real estate with garbage as the primary tenant? Read more

A high-tech trash can from a UK startup by the name of Renew is up to more than just collecting your garbage. These Renew Pods, deployed around certain parts of London ahead of last year’s Olympic Games, were initially designed to serve up video advertisements thanks to large displays on either side. Read more

Pact Group Holdings Ltd. is buying the Australian and New Zealand operations of Sulo MGB (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., including its subsidiary Sulo (NZ) Ltd.

Melbourne-based Pact said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange it will pay up to A$34.8 million (US$32.2 million), subject to Sulo meeting post-purchase financial targets. Pact is funding the deal through existing debt facilities. Read more

Tough trash objects have mettheir match, and trash experts in the field and in the home are taking notice. Touted as the “ultimate” in trash bags by consumer product experts at Real Simple and newspapers across the country, GLAD ForceFlex trash bags, with its breakthrough, patented “SELFing” technology, are ready to stretch around awkward and hard-to-manage trash objects, to prevent puncturing or ripping. Read more